


Teenage Dream

by SkyleSkaetLett



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pokemon Colosseum & XD
Genre: Family Issues, Marijuana, More Pokemon Included, Reimagining, Retelling, Social Media, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27657161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SkyleSkaetLett/pseuds/SkyleSkaetLett
Summary: 15-year-old chaotic neutral Toby’s YouTubing career has gained massive success in the past year, and his job is to stay on top of the latest trends. He’s also been tasked to save Orre.
Kudos: 5





	Teenage Dream

**Author's Note:**

> Decided to finally write this! I had this idea while I was replaying XD: Gale of Darkness and I decided, why not? I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this, but if enough people like it I'll probably continue it.
> 
> Hope you enjoy it! If you do, feel free to leave a comment <:

The boat’s engine hummed as the captain and his right-hand man stayed on the top part of the ship, on the lookout for land. Of course, they’d done this route many times, going out to the various regions of the Pokemon world, rescuing Pokemon without Trainers or shelters and bringing them back to the Orre region. The local professors and shelters certainly helped get them back into the hands of loving trainers, and for the professors that couldn’t take them, they were brought to shelters and given a good home.

They’d done this before. This was what, their dozenth trip this year? It would be fine. Though, there were a lot more Pokemon on the boat than usual. It was a few months after Christmas time, and many of these Pokemon were originally Christmas gifts for small children who would sadly get bored after a few weeks. There were a lot of campaigns these days to convince tired parents to avoid getting Pokemon for unappreciative kids. Alas — it still happened.

They were almost back at Orre, approaching Gateon Port within the hour. The seas were smooth sailing, and the captain was confident they’d get there even a little early. It wasn’t windy or anything. It was a perfect night, and the staff aboard the ship could look up and see millions of stars above them.

So close…

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind was felt from behind them. The boat rocked a little, which was unusual even for such a sudden and strong gust. Whipping around, shock overtook their calm expressions as they saw four helicopters rushing over them. They’d never seen those kinds of helicopters before, and they were almost certainly targeting the ship. The helicopters hovered above as the captain muttered a bewildered “what the hell…”

Things got much worse very quickly. A Pokemon — at least, they thought it was a Pokemon — the coloration of it was much, much weirder than usual. They hadn’t seen that kind of Pokemon before. It looked like some kind of bird, but the wings were round, luminescent circular frames. It didn’t look natural — it looked like the purple and gray hues were covering some kind of pink shimmer underneath (the captain was known for his impeccable eyesight) and its eyes were completely blood red with even darker pupils. Its skin was unnaturally shiny shades of dark hot pink and deep navy.

“W-what the hell is going on?!” the helper next to him panicked. “What do they want from us?!”

Before the captain could answer, the Pokemon let out a piercing cry. A beam emitted from its wings onto the boat, lighting it up in awful hues. The ship shook around, tossing the staff and presumably the Pokemon inside. Even through the ship’s walls, he could hear the cry of Pokemon.

The Pokemon’s beam got brighter and harsher, lifting the boat up. The captain yelled out an explicative, ordering all the staff to grab their life rafts and abandon ship. As the boat got higher, the captain could see people enhancing their safety vests, pulling out floatable boats, and hopping off the rails. The captain and his right-hand man did the same thing, hopping into the water and watching in horror as the boat floated away, the helicopters hovering above and dragging it into the distance…

They looked at each other. Before the captain could even think to ask if his crew was okay, he had to be sure he wasn’t dreaming. Because god, this felt like a bad nightmare.

~~

The Salamance in front of Toby growled and hissed, a steady stream of smoke emitting from the edges of its mouth. Of course, this Salamance was holographic — along with the Metagross and the not-a-trainer on the opposing side. That didn’t make the sight or smell of burning fire seem any less real. Toby knew this was all a simulation, a virtual reality battle arranged by the scientists at the HQ he spent his days at. It was his third battle of the day. Every week day, he would step in the battle chamber for a few hours, do a few matches, beat up way too many fake Pokemon, and then move on with his day.

It was fun, of course. The thrill of battle was all the same, even more so knowing he didn’t have to jump out of the way of a Hyper Beam or a Blizzard. And getting to have control over massive, super-powerful Pokemon as opposed to his small, Level 10 Eevee was its own rush.

But Toby would change one thing. The music. Why did they have to play music during the battles? Specifically, weird post-rock instrumentals? It just distracted him from the actual battle. Also, he really didn’t want to explain to another boomer that no, he didn’t need an explanation for why he didn’t listen to The Beatles repeatedly for hours.

The opposing virtual trainer spoke up with a command. Toby suddenly interrupted him.

“Yeah, sorry, can you wait just one moment?” He asked, knowing full well he absolutely did not need to ask for a made up trainer’s permission.

“Hey, sorry, quick request—“ Toby’s head turned to the fake sky — he knew whatever scientist was on him today was listening. “Can you turn off whatever this is? And instead, can you put on Nicki Minaj’s ‘Stupid Hoe’? It’ll really help me focus a lot better, y’know, get into the battle spirit.”

Silence hung over them, the opposing trainer looking blankly at Toby. Suddenly, there was a loud, prolonged, exasperated sigh coming from the scientist running the simulation. The static from the microphone made the exhaustion in his voice much more readable.

The music stopped. A few seconds after, Toby’s wish was granted and he heard the sounds of Nicki Minaj whooping and versing through the stereo speakers on his headset. Perfect. Now he could focus.

“Alright, much better!” Toby leaned forward, revitalized excitement running through his bloodstream. “Alright, fake Salamence, start it off with a fake Earthquake!”

~~

The match ended in approximately three minutes. Usually he’d be able to complete it in 175 seconds, but one of the Earthquakes missed (“seriously?” Toby shouted. “How the hell did you miss? With an entire Earthquake?”) so he had to stumble back as he watched the Salamance’s health go into the red.

Not that it mattered. He won his three battles, so he could go on with his day, and take care of much more important things.

With a shimmering sparkling sound, the simulation ended, and Toby wound up back in the real world — one of the labs at the HQ, staffed by one scientist taking notes and the other running the simulation. The latter looked quite exhausted, rubbing his temples. Probably from having to listen to Nicki Minaj rapping for longer than he’d like. Understandably, Toby knew that most people above the age of 60 had a terrible inability to appreciate modern music.

Toby walked up to him, hands in his pockets casually and a bored expression on his face.

“Honest question, before I give you your summary,” the doctor exhaled. “How in the world does that make you focus better than what we had on?”

Toby shrugged, giving a casual answer. “I dunno. It’s better, mostly.”

“That’s—“ The scientist sighed again, knowing that arguing with Toby on this for probably the 20th time was futile. “Never mind. Well, your bizarre music choices aside, you did pretty well. No KO’d Pokemon, as always. A solid grasp of type advantages.”

Toby just kept nodding through the praises, trying to remember to thank him for the kind words. He heard this many times before. He knew he was a talented battler, he knew he was good at Pokemon, “yes yes, I know, I get it, you can stop now,” he desperately wanted to say.

At least people had stopped telling him he was becoming as good as his dad, or bringing up his dad at all. People mostly stopped a few weeks ago, after three scientists kept singing praises about his dad for what felt like hours. They kept Toby’s smartphone away from him too so he didn’t have anything to distract himself.

He could clearly remember a younger, female scientist saying, “your dad would be so proud of you right now.”

He all but actually attacked all of them. He told them that if they ever brought up his dad again for any reason he was giving up and moving to the woods — and that was one of the kinder things he said. At first, he felt guilty for that poor scientist. At the very least, people got the message afterwards.

Toby ruminated on it every now and then, dreading the moment people would say something again. Fortunately, this scientist didn’t.

“Do you want your phone back?”

“I’d like my phone back, yeah,” Toby instantly responded.

His phone was returned to him, and he turned it on in a heartbeat to check his notifications. He posted an absolutely sublime and adorable picture of Lunchbox, his loyal Eevee partner, to Instagram a few minutes ago.

Toby grinned wide, seeing the notifications. “Aw hell yeah, 106 new followers!”

The scientist’s eyes widened — mostly in bewilderment. “In the past 15 minutes? *How*?”

Toby didn’t respond to that. He gave up trying to explain his social media influencing career to any of the scientists long ago. At the very least, Professor Krane listened to him, even if he didn’t really understand.

“Oh, special request,” Toby spoke up before walking out the door. “For the headphones, can you get new ones? Specifically the ones with cat ears? I just think they’d be like, cool.”

~~

Toby exited the simulation chamber once he managed to convince the scientist (Greg, his name was) to get Toby a pair of kitty ear headphones. It wasn’t without a ton of exhaustion and the scientist begging Toby to just wait until it was in the budget, though. Greg relented soon enough. Toby was a teenager, and a pretty scary one at that.

Even though he only did about 15 minutes of simulation battles, Toby just wanted to collapse in bed. He was looking forward to either sleeping, or mindlessly scanning his Instagram feed for hours on end. He’d most likely do the latter — after all, he was a semi-famous YouTuber and social media influencer. Scrolling feeds for entire days was his job. It paid for all his expenses, which mostly went towards weed brownies, new technology, incredible takeout, or event tickets.

Not to mention, he loved the attention. Seeing hundreds or even thousands of people a day showering him with praise was like drinking the sweetest, strongest cocktail around. (Not that Toby would know, he wasn’t fond of alcohol in the slightest.) And at the very least, his fans listened to his inane shitposts or vaguely suicidal jokes. Other than them, Toby only really had Professor Krane.

Well, he had Jovi, too. Jovi was also an influencer though, despite being nine years old. She was pretty well known for risky TikTok dares, to which she’d constantly have to hide from Lily and Professor Krane. Toby wasn’t fond of having to repeatedly explain social media concepts to his legal guardians, but Jovi absolutely hated telling them anything. Mostly because whenever she would, they’d take her phone away for an entire week, leaving Toby to again post “don’t worry guys, my sister is ok lol”.

Before Toby was even able to take five steps out of the room, he was suddenly called into another room by the janitor. Toby groaned, very much not inaudibly.

“Tobes!” The janitor called out, flinching as Toby turned to him with an aggravated expression. “Y-you’re gonna wanna come in here! Something’s big on the news!”

“Ah yeah, the news, what could be wrong with the world today?” Toby asked dryly.

“Just come in!” the janitor urged. Toby stuffed the smartphone in his pocket, rolling his eyes as he followed the janitor into the other room. Quite a few other people from the lab were gathered around the large TV. Most of these people’s names weren’t ones Toby bothered to remember — after all, many of them kind of looked the same.

The TV’s volume was put near max volume, and Toby flinched at the sound of the news anchor’s voices blasting.

“We bring to you breaking news from ONBS, here in Pyrite Town,” the news anchor started. The first thing Toby always noticed when watching the news was how put together the anchors looked — perfect makeup, perfect hair, and a stunning outfit. From a mild amount of Twitter sleuthing, Toby learned that the blue hair dye was just a cheap convenience store brand. But damn, it looked good.

Toby barely even noticed the images they were flashing in the background — distant shots of a boat floating through the air, with some sort of purple and hot pink Pokemon floating above it. Helicopters circled it — at least, Toby thought they were helicopters. It was hard to tell from the lackluster image quality.

“The S.S. Libra, set to bring back homeless Pokemon to rehome them here in Orre, was taken hostage by a mysterior Pokemon who seemed prone to attacks on humans. The ship’s whereabouts are unknown, meaning that all the Pokemon on the ship are now lost in the world. We bring to you the captain of the S.S. Libra, Captain Shune, for an exclusive interview.”

This was one of the few times Toby would actually pay attention to the news. Any sort of cruelty towards Pokemon or endangerment was a terrible, unforgivable act. His fists clenched as he continued to watch, both worried about the Pokemon on the ship and furious at whoever caused such an atrocious act.

The captain seemed to be a complete idiot. How the hell did he have ‘no idea’ where the ship had gone? Didn’t they have radars on the ship, or whatever? Not only did some strange creature take hundreds — or more — of Pokemon away, but the captain’s negligence could have made things much, much worse.

“Isn’t that insane, Toby?” the janitor turned back to Toby, startling him out of his angry fugue. “Who knows where all those Pokemon went! They could be anywhere!”

“Uh huh. Yeah, people are terrible. I… I hope they’re okay.” Shockingly, that was the most enthusiastic and engaged tone Toby had taken all day. His eyes were glued to the TV screen for a bit longer; unfortunately, it seemed that the captain was just going in circles about how he didn’t know where the ship filled with tons of innocent, scared Pokemon went.

The news segment ended. Toby wanted answers. He opened his phone again, mindlessly stepping out of the room as he tried to see if Twitter or Instagram had anything else to say about it. Most of his mutuals had no useful thoughts on the matter, predictably. He swapped over to a Pokemon Welfare account and began looking through their feed for any updates. It seemed that they had a better grasp on the matter — it turned out that the Pokemon that had taken the ship was being controlled in some way. But by who? In addition to not knowing who would do such a thing, Toby had no idea *how* anyone could pull something like that off.

Surely there must be a better answer…

Once again he was too engaged with his phone to find answers, and he ended up bumping into one of the lab workers who sported a yellow shirt with blue overalls. The worker stumbled back, and Toby flinched as he put down his phone. He wanted to be annoyed, but Toby knew it was on him for not looking straight.

“Augh, Toby, there you are,” he sighed, exasperated.

“Huh? Were you like, looking for me?”

“No — I mean, yes, because I can’t find your sister anywhere. You haven’t seen her, have you?”

Toby blinked, his eyes rolling up. He really wished he could tell people he wasn’t a goddamn babysitter for his sister, expendable at all times. “No, I haven’t. Why? Where did she go?”

The worker sighed, putting his head in his hands. “Ugh, damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have challenged her.”

“Huh? Challenged her to what? What—“ Toby’s eyes narrowed at the worker. “You told her not to do a TikTok dare, huh.”

“Of course I did! She came up to me and started going on about this new internet game where people would go to haunted houses and try to piss off ghosts until something scary would happen. I didn’t think she’d actually do it.”

“Really? Jovi did that?” Toby raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, she’s so reckless, I mean why would—“

“That dare became irrelevant like, last week. Why would Jovi do something so outdated?”

Silence hung above the worker and Toby. Toby knew how ridiculous he sounded, 100%. Toby knew that Jovi loved internet dares, and she would always hop on them as soon as they started. So why would she do something that started almost a month ago?

Whatever. It wasn’t important. “So… where did she go?”

“Dr. Kaminko’s place. The only house here that seems remotely haunted.”

“Really? That place isn’t haunted in the slightest. It’s staffed by two crazy people, sure, but haunted? No way.” Toby waited for the lab worker to say something, anything.

“You want me to go find her, don’t you.”

~~

At the very least, Toby’s sudden chore to go to Dr. Kaminko’s mansion gave him a chance to show off the new mods he got for his motorcycle. He recently added a boombox into it, somehow making it fit neatly to the side of the bike. With his beloved Lunchbox in tow in the Pokeball in his pocket, Toby blasted late 2000s Kesha as he drove off to the creepy ass mansion.

He was lucky that there wasn’t a ton of car traffic on these roads. Living in the middle of nowhere in Orre was a blessing in some ways. Occasionally he could stop on the side of the road in case he was in a heated Twitter argument. Luckily, there were no flame wars today, but the picture he’d posted of Lunchbox earlier that day was still getting a massive amount of attention.

The drive to Dr. Kaminko’s place was only about 7 minutes. He parked the motorcycle, stepping off of it to enter the dimly lit house once again. The gates squeaked as Toby opened them, walking around the 500-year old fountain with a Groudon statue at top. Thunder cracked in the distance — why was it always thundering when Toby stopped by?

Whatever, all he had to do was go into the mansion, pick up his little sister, and go home. This would be a breeze…

At least, Toby thought so, until he heard a squeaky voice crack that was all too familiar. Oh, lord.

“Halt!” Chobin, a scientist who barely reached 4’5”, called out as he slowly walked over to Toby. “Who goes there?”

“Me, Chobin,” Toby groaned. “I’m here to pick up my sister. We’ve been over this be—“

“No one gets through these doors without my approval! You are an intruder! A burglar, here to steal our belongings!”

If Chobin didn’t have such an annoyingly high pitched voice, Toby wouldn’t have minded his repeated angry, stupid ramblings. But his voice cracked at every word. It strained his poor ears. Toby knew that Chobin wouldn’t believe him, either, even though this was their 50th time going through this conversation.

“If you beat Chobin, Chobin will let you through! Prepare for the hardest battle of your life!”

Toby grabbed Lunchbox’s Pokeball off of his belt and readied it for a battle. “Lunchbox, I’m sorry, you have to beat up a weak Sunkern again because this guy can’t afford new glasses.”

Lunchbox was summoned from the Pokeball, sporting an adorable outfit around him. It was Toby’s newest creation that had gotten him even more attention on Instagram — a “business casual” outfit fit for an Eevee, with an ID tag that said “Lunchy Boy” on it. Lunchbox fortunately did not mind the outlandish outfits, showing it off as Chobin called out his poor, terrified Sunkern. This one had clearly remembered its last bout with Lunchbox as it recoiled in fear.

“Sunkern, use Leech Seed!” Chobin called out. The Sunkern managed to snap itself out of it, launching a few seeds towards the Eevee. Lunchbox tried to bounce away from it; unfortunately, one of the seeds caught onto its leg, draining its energy slightly. Lunchbox wasn’t too hurt by the few hits it took from it, and stood ready for battle.

“Lunchbox, use Bite! Aim for the body!”

Lunchbox straightened its spine, rushing towards the Sunkern and preparing its sharp fangs. The Sunkern tried to hop out of the way, fearing the vicious bite it would soon endure. Unfortunately, it was not fast enough to get out of the way, and Lunchbox grabbed a hold of it. The Eevee sunk its teeth into Sunkern, and as it yelped and struggled free, Toby could see it looked much worse for wear.

“S-Sunkern!” Chobin shrieked out, and Toby could feel that Eevee took damage just from that. “Don’t give up! Tackle it with all your might!”

Lunchbox didn’t bother to dodge out of the way — ‘all of Sunkern’s might’ meant Lunchbox pretty much took a chip of damage. He could barely feel the impact of a tiny seed-like Pokemon smashing against him. Lunchbox stumbled back only a little, just to regain its balance.

Toby checked his phone, not to actually check anything but just to let Chobin know how bored he was of this battle.

“Lunchbox,” Toby said calmly, “hit it with a Quick Attack.”

Lunchbox hit back against the Sunkern with a tackle that went at an abnormal speed. Sunkern was thrown off, both by the sudden impact and how it had basically no time to prepare for it. The seed was launched through the sky, landing on the ground with a crash. It tried to move for a moment, before fainting from the amount of damage it took. Predictably, this was pathetically easy.

“Sunkern! You… you BURGLAR!” Chobin screamed as he called back his Sunkern and stepped towards Toby. “You beat my precious Pokemon! But this won’t be the end, you—“

Toby calmly waited for the realization to wash over Chobin. Chobin hesitated, taking his glasses off (seriously, could he even see through those things?) and eyed Toby. His expression turned from anger, to fear, to shock.

“T-Toby! What a… pleasant surprise!” Chobin tried to giggle off the awkwardness, much to no avail. Toby just continued to stare at him, his gaze instilling terror into Chobin. If there was anyone who knew how surprisingly terrifying Toby could be, it was Chobin.

“Mhmm,” Toby hummed. “Isn’t it, huh.”

“Uh… Chobin takes it you’re here for your sister? Is… is that it?”

“Yep.”

“Ah-hah! Chobin knew it this whole time! Chobin knew you weren’t a… a burglar!”

“Really.”

“Yes, really!”

Toby stopped staring at Chobin. He just pulled out his phone and began mindlessly scrolling. He knew it pissed Chobin off, which is exactly why he did it.

“H-hey, Toby! Y-y’know, you’re really good with the social internet book thing!”

“Did you try to say ‘social media’?”

“W-well,” Chobin fiddled his hands together. “I was thinking maybe you could help us out! We just made this new invention, and… it’s not gaining a lot of traction—“

“Oh really? I wonder why.”

“And, well, maybe you could… you could make a post about it!”

Toby glanced up from his phone. There was no clear emotion in his eyes, which was somehow worse for Chobin. “You mean, like, make a post about it? Why? What ‘invention’ is it?”

“It’s a pair of sandals with spikes in them! The spikes are painful enough to get you to stand up and do your work! I think it’s a great invention, and Chobin loves them a lot. Chobin’s feet certainly don’t, though!”

Chobin broke into obnoxiously loud laughter. Toby stared on with a bland face.

“Sure, yeah, I’ll give you a shoutout,” he said — and it wasn’t really a lie. “Can I just go inside to see my sister now?”

~~

Toby walked through the doors of Dr. Kaminko’s mansion. Posters lined the walls of the reverse kleat sandals, which Toby could see as nothing but an uncomfortable hindrance. He already drafted a Tweet about them — it was presented as an advertisement, sure, but a very sarcastic one that wasn’t *actually* advocating anyone to wear spikes on their feet.

At least it got him through the door. He looked around for his sister, stepping into Dr. Kaminko’s room and immediately spotting the blue pigtailed girl. She had her smartphone as if she was about to take a selfie, except a very bored Dr. Kaminko was in the picture as well. Also in Jovi’s hand was a speaker that Toby knew was at max volume, and Toby *knew* was ready to play W.A.P. straight into Dr. Kaminko’s ears.

“Hey, Twitter fam!” Jovi exclaimed with her voice cracking from excitement. Dr. Kaminko, of course, did not bother to turn around. “This is Jovella here, I’m about to play W.A.P. for Dr. Kaminko here.” Her head tilted to the old professor, who still wasn’t looking at her. “Dr. Kaminko, what do you think of the song ‘We All Pray’?”

“Mm, yes, the kids certainly like it these days,” Dr. Kaminko muttered as he looked through his blueprints.

“Alright, let’s turn it up—“

Jovi was about to hit the play button and blast it into the poor professor’s ears. The sound of Toby’s scolding voice was the only thing that stopped her.

“Jovi!” Toby groaned out. His sister sighed in exasperation, putting down the speaker before she could play it. “What are you doing?!”

“I’m about to play We All Pray for Dr. Kaminko! Surely, he loves praying, right? We’re all good religious people here!”

“Jovi,” Toby put his face in his hands. “You know people stopped doing that dare last week!” It wasn’t even the dare Toby thought she was going to do, but the main point remained.

“I know, but I tried to do it with mom and she took away my phone again! Dr. Kaminko wouldn’t do that,” Jovi protested.

“Dr. Kaminko isn’t going to care! Look at that man’s eyes. He’s seen it all.”

Jovi rolled her eyes. She was clearly about to ignore Toby unless he gave her a much more enticing offer.

“Jovi,” Toby said, his voice taking on a much more brother-like tone as he approached Jovi with an unthreatening, caring manner. He carried a warm smile on his lips, trying to be the bigger person in front of his 9-year-old step sister.

“If you come home with me so everyone stops freaking out, I promise you I’ll give you my Instagram log-in for an hour.”

Jovi blinked, though Toby could see the gleeful sparkle in her eyes. “No bounds?”

“No bounds.”

Jovi smiled, putting away the speaker in her bag and tagging alongside Toby. “Yeah, okay, now *that* is convincing.”

~~

Toby managed to get Jovi home peacefully, without much issue. Jovi didn’t even antagonize her mom when Lillian saw her at the doorstep. In fact, she seemed happy to see her mom. Toby knew she was most likely just happy to have 100% access to Toby’s Instagram account so she could do whatever the hell she wanted for an entire hour. Toby knew most people would consider it a disastrous mistake. But, Jovi couldn’t cause that much chaos, and Toby wasn’t particularly scared of what she could do.

As soon as they walked onto the pavement by the lab, Jovi and Toby were greeted by Jovi’s mom — and Toby’s legal guardian. Her arms were crossed, and she had a stern look on her face. Jovi hadn’t gotten to the point where she was able to brush it off like Toby had, so Lillian could sense the annoyance on her face clear as day.

“Jovi, how many times have I told you not to disappear without at least talking to me first?”

Jovi didn’t respond, but Lillian could see the irate pout on her face.

“I don’t think you know how much it worries me when you go off and run away. I mean, if you’re going to go, please just tell me where you’re going. And when you’ll get back. Or… or one or the other.”

She had this conversation many times. And yet, it did get through to Jovi sometimes. Jovi’s eyes quivered and she looked away bashfully. Toby remembered the many times Lillian would resort to harsher words and even punishments for Jovi’s childlike behavior — but Jovi became much more level headed and slightly more reasonable once Lillian started treating Jovi as less of a nuisance and more of a daughter.

“Jovi. It really scares me when you run off like that. Do you understand?”

“Yes, mom,” Jovi sighed. “I won’t do it again.”

Jovi ran back inside, not wanting to deal with this confrontation with her mom for another second. Toby was about to follow her, before Lillian placed a hand on his shoulder to prompt him to turn around.

“Toby, can I ask you for a quick favor?” With Lillian, quick favors were almost never actually quick, but Toby turned around to listen. “Could you run to Gateon Port later today and grab a part from Pierre’s Parts? We’ve already called him, so he knows you’re coming.” She paused, noticing Toby’s discomfort. “You can relax for a bit, if you want, though…”

Toby tried to hide his grimace. It wasn’t unusual for the people at the lab to throw Toby around on various errands since he was considered generally expendable, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do that day. “Sure, yeah, I’ll go in like an hour.”

He walked past Lillian, went up the elevator, and ignored the blaring sounds of W.A.P. playing on the intercom because Jovi didn’t have much else to do and was disappointed her previous prank failed.

~~

Toby collapsed on his bed, opening up his phone to check the feeds. For once, nothing interesting was going on — the Twitter feud he’d been closely following had gone on for a few days, and it just devolved into basic insults and mild threats. He joined in for a bit to antagonize a rival influencer of his, but that burst of dopamine wore off eventually.

He really needed something new… he needed to try something new. His channel of mostly vlogs and pictures of Pokemon had gone on for about four years now, and while his popularity was growing, he felt like he — as a creative — had become stagnant. He did try to branch out every now and then, but people just wanted the same old thing over and over again. He didn’t mind it, but he needed something new, something fresh.

A friend of his, Naoko, reached out from her home region of Alola, asking for him to come visit and do vacation blogs together. Toby strongly considered it, but as soon as he was about to book plane tickets, he was stopped by his guardians. As a consolation of sorts, Naoko sent over a batch of her finest weed brownies — how the hell they got over customs was beyond Toby, but she had been raving about them for years. The package had arrived earlier that morning, placed innocuously in Toby’s room. Might as well try one, Toby thought, nothing better to do…

Toby pulled out the unopened package, and ripped open the tape. Objectively, he knew that he should have started with a half of one or even a quarter. But he took one, unwrapped it, and stuffed it into his mouth.

He laid back in bed, waiting for the effects to hit him — for the ‘calm’ to take over him, as he referred to it. Soon enough, he started feeling dizzy and lethargic; way too much so, in fact, that he instantly regretted taking the entire brownie. The effects got worse and worse. He laid back in bed. Turning around in agony, he grabbed his cup of water and drank it to dull the effects. Turning back around, he gasped as he saw an unfamiliar, shadowy figure.

“Shit,” Toby exhaled. “I’ve never had a hallucination this bad, before.”

“I am not a hallucination, Toby,” the figure spoke — though, Toby wasn’t sure how it spoke. It didn’t seem to have a mouth of any sort. Just one eye, the other covered by a bang departed from its billowing white clouded hair. The rest of the figure — aside from the red bear trap collar — was completely black, in an hourglass figure with parts dissipating from its shoulders and tail.

“Uh-huh,” Toby, being only kind of scared, laughed it off. “Good to know, figment of my imagination.”

“I am not a figment of your imagination,” it continued to speak. “I am Darkrai, harbinger of nightmares, bringer of fear and despair.”

If this Darkrai Pokemon was expecting any sort of reaction, it was not bemused curiosity. Toby simply exhaled a “huh”, leaning back and staring at Darkrai with inquisitiveness.

“So you’re the harbinger of nightmares?” Toby was completely unfazed, if only mildly bewildered. “Huh, I’d think you’d be like, scarier.”

“I… apologize, what?”

“Y’know, I thought you’d be like, spooky. Like, the manifestation of my fears, y’know?” Toby waited for a response, but all he could see was shock in the Legendary’s one eye. “You know, like, maybe you’d look like… me only having a flip phone for the rest of my life. Or, like, maybe you’d look like a clown! But like, a clown holding up bad things that people I loved said about me behind my back. Or, like… y’know. Something scary, right?”

Silence hung above them, though Toby was still completely convinced he was just talking to a hallucination.

“Grown men scream when they hear my name, Toby. How are you so… calm?”

Toby shrugged. “I’ve seen worse, man.”

“You’ve seen worse? You’ve seen worse than the mythical god of nightmares?”

“Yeah,” Toby nodded enthusiastically. “Once, I got this nasty scar on my leg, that was pretty scary. But some dark blob floating in my room, looking kinda surprised? Nah, this is fine.”

Darkrai continued to look on in shock.

“Yeah, you’re pretty chill. In fact, why don’t you have one with me?” Toby pulled out another brownie from the box. “You may want to have like, half or a quarter, though. They’re pretty powerful.”

“I— no! I mean, what a kind offer, but… no, I’m here because I need to talk to you.”

“About what, imagination creature?”

“I’m here to relay to you a dark future. My sister, Cresselia, has been caught by some unknown trespassers. They seem to have taken her hostage and transformed her into something terrible. My sister’s powers are much stronger than any of us can imagine. If someone were to get her hands on her powers, then the mental states of Pokemon and people alike could be…”

“Woah, woah, woah,” Toby interrupted them. “This is too intense. Slow down here. Why are you telling me this?”

Darkrai paused, clearly wanting to go back to their story but relenting. Toby may not have been a god of terrifying nightmares, but he was definitely a teenage boy. “Because you are the best person who can help her, Toby. You have to find whoever captured my sister, and take them down once and for all.”

Toby stared, his gaze not quite readable. And then he broke into laughter. “Nah.”

“W-what? ’N-nah’? Are you rejecting this?”

“I mean, yeah. Yeah, nah. Nah, yeah. Woah, language is so weird.” Toby quickly realized how off topic he was getting, and tried to force his brain back to a coherent train of thought. “Like, first of all, you’re a hallucination—“

“I’m really not,” Darkrai responded, though they sounded significantly more exasperated by the seemingly futile conversation.

“Okay, figment of my imagination. Second of all, what about me is so special that I can save your sister?”

Darkrai sighed — as best as a being with no mouth could. “You have talent in your bloodstream, Toby—“

“Don’t,” Toby spoke threateningly.

“— and many people could rely on your talents, wherever they come from,” Darkrai quickly diverted themself away from the topic Toby was dreading. At least the God of Nightmares had some sympathy, shockingly enough.

“Doesn’t answer the question. Why not like, a Champion or something? Or someone with more than a level 10 Eevee and a bunch of simulations?”

Darkrai paused. It was clear that this ethereal being was not the best at giving motivational pep talks. “Most people are not as connected to Pokemon as you.” Toby didn’t respond with any kind of witty remark, so Darkrai assumed he was still listening and kept going. “The kind of darkness that has taken over my sister’s heart, is the kind of shadow most people can’t break through. And it’s not just my sister. Other Pokemon are being corrupted by it, as well.”

Toby hummed. He wanted to grab another brownie to see if it’d give him an even weirder hallucination and an even bigger problem, but his body was too lethargic to even reach for one.

“What if I don’t?” Toby challenged.

Darkrai’s eye twitched, but they didn’t respond.

“Like, say everything you’re saying is true. What would happen if I just… don’t?”

More silence. Toby could tell this God of Nightmares was becoming not necessarily mad, but disappointed.

“The world will turn into darkness itself. It will transition to a bleak, hopeless society.”

“Aw,” Toby clicked his tongue and smiled. “The world’s transitioning? I support her.”

Darkrai continued to stare at the terrifying teenager who seemingly had no fear at all at this prospect. In fact, the fact Toby kept making jokes about it was more horrifying in and of itself. Darkrai tried to formulate a different question to try to understand why Toby was acting this way.

“Are you… okay?” They asked.

“Not at all.”

“So, instead of seeking any sort of help for the clear emptiness inside of you, you deflect any sort of important information or serious discussion with internet memes and snarky remarks,” Darkrai observed, narrowing their eye and crossing their arms across their chest. “No matter how much attention you get from others, it doesn’t faze you in the slightest. It gives you a boost of serotonin that disappears within a few minutes. Nothing sparks motivation in you anymore. You feel that the world is empty and worthless, because you feel empty and worthless. Right?”

“Haha, yeah,” Toby laughed, poking the middle of his chest through his shirt and properly fitted binder. “This bitch empty. Yeet!”

There was a long pause, before Toby added, “huh, this is actually really fun. Is this what therapy’s like?”

“Kid, you need therapy.” Darkrai continued to stare, the disappointment in their eye looking much more apparent. “Fine. Let’s do this the hard way. Did you know those brownies aren’t actually that strong?”

“Yeah, sure, and I’m hallucinating anyways.”

“Naoko only put about one milligram of weed in the mix when she made the entire batch. That brownie you ate has next to nothing in it. I’m causing all of the effects you’re feeling right now.”

“What?!” Toby exclaimed, sitting up straight. “Why? I paid like, a thousand PokeDollars for shipping alone!”

“Because you have a problem, Toby. And all of your friends and acquaintances can see it.”

“No I don’t,” Toby sighed.

“Really.”

“Yeah.”

“What if I told you that when you go to Gateon Port to begin dismantling this nefarious organization, I can tell you where to get weed brownies that will actually give you hallucinations?”

Toby blinked, suddenly paying much more attention. “How?”

“God of Nightmares,” Darkrai reminded him as if they were scolding their child. “I have some experience with foresight into the future. Also, you will meet some strong Pokemon for your team along the way, though I’m not sure you’d care about that part. Would that convince you to actually take this seriously?”

“Uh, yeah,” Toby nodded. “Can you like, undo how tired I am so I can get ready?”

Darkrai’s eyes flashed a new color — an even brighter shade of cyan. Toby suddenly felt a weight lift from his chest, mobile again. He stood up, stretching his limbs as he relished in the experience of the nauseous feeling dissipating.

“Do you see now? The problem?”

“Huh? I think so, yeah.” Toby wasn’t entirely paying attention. “So anyways, where is it?”

Darkrai sighed once again — a sound that had become quite common over the length of their interaction. “You’ll see it when you see it. It will be within your first interaction.”

“Oh, pog! Thanks, hallucination dude.”

Toby got his stuff together, assembling a bag of belongings to take with him on the journey. This included a fat stack of physical cash for when he’d find where to buy the weed brownies. Not that Toby cared, but Darkrai just looked at him with exhaustion and muttered under its breath, “Why did you choose *this* idiot, Cresselia…”

~~

Toby wound up back in Lillian’s office, his bags in tow and a bit of a more motivated spark in his eyes. Lillian swirled around in her office chair, looking the energetic Toby up and down.

“Alright. Cool. Gateon Port, getting a part for the thing Doctor Krane is working on. Where am I going?”

“Pierre’s Parts. You know where that is, right? I’ve sent you on errands there before.”

“Uh, guy with the fifty year old beanie and the goatee? I remember him, yeah. Once I asked if he played Wonderwall in college and he got really mad,” Toby grinned, speaking as if he was talking about his major life accomplishments.

Lillian sighed. “Yeah, that’s him. You sure you can handle this? Can I rely on you?”

Toby grinned even wider, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He bounced up and down, ready to go. “Of course, yeah. I’ll take care of it. It’s my job, after all.”

After getting the information from his guardian, Toby left the HQ and embarked on his vehicle. First stop, Gateon Port. Second stop, Pierre’s Parts. Third stop, sheer bliss.


End file.
